Padraig takes rough with the smooth

IT was the last question at the end of a series of four long interviews. It can't have been easy to sit there and be interrogated as to just why you did this and did that or why you hit shots that cost you the Open Championship.

Some golfers can do it. Tiger Woods proved his facility to take the rough with the smooth at the weekend and come out smiling and fighting. Colin Montgomerie, surprise, surprise, went down the other route. And not for the first time by any means, Padraig Harrington demonstrated he can accept the slings and arrows of misfortune with equanimity as he faced his inquisitors without flinching.

For the second time in two weeks, the consensus was that he had blown it. The media felt it was their duty to find out why. Harrington wasn't having any of it. With that whimsical way of his, he beat them all off, left with a smile on his face and joined his wife Caroline for a quiet meal before setting off yesterday for Holland and the Dutch Open starting on Thursday. If he was hurting, it didn't show.